I guess I'm flattered :)
I mostly play live poker now, with enough $1 video poker to maintain diamond status with TR. Other than that, I am definitely not a "major league" player in any way (and "other than that" is probably a meaningless qualifier). When I was working I had enough bankroll to play $5 and once or twice $10 or $25 VP, but even then I was over my head above $5.
Whether my then-regular level of $5 is "major league" or "low stakes" is in the eyes of the beholder -- at the time, I was comfortable with $5 play; now that I'm retired, my bankroll does not support that level of play comfortably, and I only go to a $5 machine on the rare occasion when I want to play, but the available games under $5 are not so-called "full pay" (which I accept as 99.5% or more, so that probably makes it clear that I'm not a pro).
Also, I just play Jacks or Better -- used to play 10/7 DDB MANY years ago, but I don't take the game seriously enough to keep my skills up on more than one variety, ie JoB -- so that probably also places me clearly out of the "major league" category -- but my awareness of what I'm doing also leaves me out of the "without a clue" category too.
So I would never say that I am a player "without a clue" by any means.
So I am primarily a recreational player, but professionals should be well aware that many recreational players (certainly not most, but many nevertheless) take the game seriously, understand its intricacies as well as the pro's (although we may not bother to learn a wide variety of games, or penalty cards, or other more-advanced plays that don't add very much return on the time spent learning them if you aren't an every-day or every-week player), who are not superstitious, try to play correctly, often do play correctly, may or may not qualify for a lot of extra offers, may or may not attract any attention (good or bad), and may often be playing at break-even or slightly below with the intent of (1) having fun and (2) getting some reasonable level of comps or preferential treatment (the VIP line is almost as valuable to me as the comps) in recognition of the action given to the casino. While we enjoy the game, we neither expect nor rely on it for income
- but that doesn't mean that we want to accept a higher casino edge by routinely playing games with sub-par pay tables or by playing badly. I never play a "hunch" at video poker (and wouldn't know how one could reasonably have a "hunch").
And of course, like players with none of those more serious characteristics, we hope that variance will reward us enough that we end up on the plus side of our EV instead of on the slightly negative side that our game selection and playing level might properly forecast.
When I played blackjack, I was still recreational, but I'd have to call myself somewhere well beyond minor league, simply because of my betting level and level of expertise -- there I DID count cards, and not ony varied my bets with the count, but varied the marginal play decisions appropriately, took a lot of counter-measures (which now seem silly) to reduce the chance of detection, and so on. When I played blackjack, even though I only played 5-10 trips (3-5 days each) a year, and was by no means a pro, I expected to play with a 0.5 to 2% edge against the house, while fully understanding that my expected win of 1-2 betting units an hour was with a variance of +/- 20 units. However, I would again not consider myself "major league" because I played only 20-40 hours per trip, 5-10 trips a year, never had the least interest in playing team blackjack, and never expected it to significantly affect my income (in either direction), although it was nice to
earn a cash income during vacations without "working" -- although it was starting to seem more like "work" than "play" some of the time.
--BG
================
> 3. Re: [vpFREE] Re: LVRJ: Ruling raises questions about laws
> concerning
> Posted by: "rob.singer1111@yahoo.com"
> rob.singer1111@yahoo.com
> rob.singer1111
> Date: Thu Nov 1, 2012 10:41 am ((PDT))
>
> Just wondering Barry: do you consider yourself as "major
> league"....or just one of those "low stakes" players without
> a clue? Either way, your post made a lot of sense.
>
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